JOURNEY THROUGH JERSEY 47 



place, standing on uneven ground, through which flows 

 a brook, crossed by a stone bridge. In view of the 

 fact that the town is perhaps no more than fifty years 

 old, Trenton contains very many buildings and among 

 them several of good appearance. The landlord here 

 permitted us to go to bed unquestioned being not yet 

 done with several other guests arrived shortly before, 

 and we not disposed to wait for him. The taverns on 

 the way were in other respects very good, all of them 

 clean, well-supplied, and well-served. 



A mile from Trenton brought us to the banks of the 

 Delaware, over which the passenger is set, very 

 cheaply, in a flat, roomy ferry-boat. A large brick 

 house and several other houses, all in ruins, stand here 

 as a token of the war. A little above the ferry there 

 appears a reef, standing diagonally across the stream ; 

 at low water this is uncovered, and through the 

 many breaks the stream hurries \vith a swifter current 

 and a certain uproar. This is what is called the Lower 

 Falls of Delaware, the limit of shipping inland. That 

 is to say, little shalops and sail boats come up as high 

 as this place, but nothing ascends beyond. In the 

 spring and in the fall, when either rains or melting 

 snows swell the stream, and these rocks with others in 

 the channel are under water, there come down residents 

 of the upper country in large, flat boats, from a dis- 

 tance of 100-150 miles, bringing their wheat and other 

 products to market. Throughout America these swell- 

 ings of the rivers are called ' the freshes ' and are of 

 great importance to the more distant inhabitants. The 

 tide comes up to this fall some 200 miles from the sea, 

 but brings no salt water with it.* Judging by the 



* The tides bring salt water hardly half the distance from 



